What have you fixed, repaired or maintained lately"

[Sundancer268]

Originally Posted by jenandjon

My fridge was not working very well. I pulled the vent on top off to look in there. This insoulation had fallen and blocked it from venting. It works great on electric now. But when I switch it to gas the carbon monoxide detector goes off. I dont know whats going on now.

I would check the Box the reefer is mounted in. Every reefer I removed and re-installed, the box was sealed so no gas combustion products could enter the coach and the reefer was sealed with RTV to the front of the box. I suspect the failed insulation was at one time part of the seal between the inside and outside of the box. Unfortunately you will have to remove the reefer to do a complete inspection.

[jenandjon]

Originally Posted by LSC9901

Our fridge wasn't performing as well as I would have liked it to so we removed it (Norcold 1210 IM) and installed a residential refrigerator. Gets down to proper operating temperature within a few hours versus the 24 plus hours the Norcold required. 16 Cu Ft versus 12 Cu Ft. Much less frustrated now.

Every camper I have ever own has had a residential fridge swapped in. Either was done before i got it or did it myself. This is the first camper I had that has a "working" RV fridge.

[jenandjon]

Originally Posted by Sundancer268

I would check the Box the reefer is mounted in. Every reefer I removed and re-installed, the box was sealed so no gas combustion products could enter the coach and the reefer was sealed with RTV to the front of the box. I suspect the failed insulation was at one time part of the seal between the inside and outside of the box. Unfortunately you will have to remove the reefer to do a complete inspection.

The insulation fell off the outside wall. But, I will pull the fridge out and see if in fact it is sealed like you say. It is possible someone had it out at one time and never sealed it back up.

[LSC9901]

Originally Posted by jenandjon

Every camper I have ever own has had a residential fridge swapped in. Either was done before i got it or did it myself. This is the first camper I had that has a "working" RV fridge.

My Norcold 1210 IM "worked". The freezer actually did fairly well and given enough time the fridge part would even get down to 34°. It just never would remain anywhere close to 37°. Eventually both just rose too high to make us feel as though it was working good. I checked out the heating elements, no yellow dust, checked and moved the thermistor. Checked vent pipe. Fans had already been installed and were working. We even put a small fan in the fridge but to no avail.

At this point we have given up having the propane so that it can run as we travel but we do have the generator to run it if necessary. I also bought a thermometer that has 2 remote senors so we have one in the freezer and one in the fridge. That way we can monitor it and if it starts getting too warm we can fire up the generator. We have given thought to an inverter dedicated to the fridge but the cost versus what we might spend in generator fuel seems to be quite lopsided. We are basically weekenders with a few longer weekends and a week or two during the summer so, again, the inverter seems like a waste to us. It'll work fine for us and the cost of the residential fridge versus a new RV fridge ($3000 plus) or the Amish cooling unit ($1400 at least, with shipping) was far easier to accept. Our fridge was on sale and we paid a whopping $556 for it. Lost the frustration, some of the weight and gained an additional 4 cu ft for beer storage ..... or some of that food stuff.

PS ..... and with full disclosure we sold the semi working Norcold for $225. Cost of the residential was even less than I stated above.

[NXR]

Originally Posted by jenandjon

The insulation fell off the outside wall. But, I will pull the fridge out and see if in fact it is sealed like you say. It is possible someone had it out at one time and never sealed it back up.

We had the same issue and the factory never sealed the 1210. The top of the fridge was completely open from the rear to the inside of the slide. You could stick a tape measure in from the top outside panel (because it was on the side of the slide) and see the tape measure over the doors. The fridge cooled poorly. The top full-width slanted baffle, required for a slide installation, was completely missing.

The dealer stuck a piece of foil-covered insulation board in the gap on the top of the fridge and added foil metal tape all around the back where they could reach. That stopped the CO detector I kept on top of the fridge from registering anything. It used to go up to 78 ppm at times when using propane. Previously an IR thermometer would read temps over 100 degrees on the wood trim above the doors on electric or propane and now they are just the ambient temperature.

At a factory appointment they removed the 1210 completely and had a Norcold rep supervise the baffling, sealing and venting. They also had their fridge installers watch and learn what their shortcuts were causing.

Wow, what a difference doing the job correctly made. The freezer typically is in the low single digits with the fridge at 35 to 38 when set to 5. In 97 degree heat with full afternoon sun on the slide with the fridge. Originally it would not cool at 9. After the dealer work the freezer would drift up to the mid-teens in the afternoon sun while the fridge stayed at 37 with a setting of 5. Now it doesn't. Yet.

When driving we used to see the fridge temp go to about 43 even after the dealer work. It would cool back down at a rest stop to walk the dogs. After the factory re-do the temp in the fridge never varies while driving.

No extra fans or anything else, just a proper installation. And as I noted, ours is in a slide so there is no roof vent. Exhaust venting has to make a 90 degree turn to exhaust out the slide.

Ray

[RayChez1]

My Norcold was working perfect, but while at a resort in San Diego we were getting ready to go out and I happen to notice no lights or power coming into the refrigerator. What happened the heat sensor turned it off. So I decided to call a repairman from Elite RV in SD. He told me right away what the problem was. So I asked if he could replace the cooling unit coils on the back and he said yes. So he did not use Norcold, he used another company that gave more warranty. It is heavy duty like the Amish. Total was $2500.00 parts and labor and taxes. The repair turned out perfect. The two freezer temperature is zero and the fridge I like it at 34 degrees. But I really can not complain on the original Norcold 1200, it lasted seventeen years, plus they had given me back on the recall law suit $1200.00. But I definitely wanted a fridge that was both propane and AC. Had a neighbor parked next to me with a fifth wheel trailer and he had a residential and he did not like it because while traveling long distances he said the fridge not having any power to it, eventually things would start thawing out and some food needed to stay cold. But he just could not see paying for a new propane/AC fridge.

[jenandjon]

When we had the residential fridge I would have to fire up the generator and string a cord every time we stopped. It was a real PITA. I was about to start installing an inverter and batteries when I decided to trade it off and get this newer bigger camper instead. Thinking this has an RV fridge. My problems are gone. .



I just got a 1977 pace arrow motor home for the engine. Body is shot. I plugged the fridge in. It works perfectly. If it fit the same hole as my Cardinal I would be seriously contemplating going back old school. No LED light display. No circuit board. Just a good old fashioned fridge.



Technology is great when it works.

[jenandjon]

Originally Posted by NXR

We had the same issue and the factory never sealed the 1210. The top of the fridge was completely open from the rear to the inside of the slide. You could stick a tape measure in from the top outside panel (because it was on the side of the slide) and see the tape measure over the doors. The fridge cooled poorly. The top full-width slanted baffle, required for a slide installation, was completely missing.


Ray

Thanks for the advise. I am actually going to go check that before I leave for work this morning.

[Hit_the_Rhod]

Originally Posted by RayChez1

Had a neighbor parked next to me with a fifth wheel trailer and he had a residential and he did not like it because while traveling long distances he said the fridge not having any power to it, eventually things would start thawing out and some food needed to stay cold.

Originally Posted by jenandjon

When we had the residential fridge I would have to fire up the generator and string a cord every time we stopped. It was a real PITA. .

The solution to both of the posters above is to run a 12v hot wire back to the RV from the two vehicle, through the existing 7 pin connector (pin 4). diagram below shows which pin to use. That way the battery in the RV stays charged, the inverter supplies power to the fridge, and everything's cold when you arrive. It also helps if you are leveling the RV without pedestal power. Just disconnect the hitch, but leave the 7 pin connected.

[Limegreencj5]

All this week:
Power gear slide wouldn’t extend beyond about 8 inches. Motor? Obstacle? Lube?
It was the slide topper bracket loosening and would turn and wedge itself after about 8 inches. Put it back on with a rivet, good as new.

Power gear electric levelers had at least 6 alarms going off. Last trip the rear port leveler had to be manually retracted, and the display has never shown it to be raised. Downloaded every trouble-shoot manual power gear had, to the tune of about 75 pages. Had to manually extend every foot about 5 inches, did a hard system reset, and voila everything works. Even put in a new zero point so on auto they actually level the coach.

[Ray,IN]

Well, my latest was having the fuel distributor module replaced in my injector pump, 300 miles from home. Due to virus shutdowns, it took 2 weeks for Cummins Great Plains to obtain a new module. $6,000 later we are back home.

[JoeyGirouard]

irv2 and its contributors have been a valuable resource for people like me who own an older motor-home. In particular, I want to do a special thank you to Waiter21. Its people like him that make irv2 the valuable resource it's become.

I'm getting ready for a trip in a few weeks, but having problems with my A/C and furnace, They come on and run for no reason, and are totally unreliable. It got to the point where I was turning the circuit breakers on/off to run the units manually. I need to get this fixed before my trip

Searching through posts on irv2, this seemed to be a common problem with older Intellitec ECC control systems. Waiter21 chimed in and offered several things to get the system working, cleaning the switches and sliders, look carefully at the circuit boards for corrosion and bad solder joints especially where the connectors plugs are. He gave me his phone number and we talked on the phone. Everything looked ok, but when I tested it, there wasn't any change He suggested calling Intellitec, they may be able to repair my boards, and also check with Fleetwood, they may have some new boards in stock.

He then said he had one other option that I might be interested in. He does electronics and computers as a hobby, and had been working on a replacement for his Intellitec system. He had so much documantion that he put together a dedicated web site just for this (he does web sites as a hobby also). I wasn't expecting a lot but went there as a last resort just to see what he had done.

www.waiterecc.com

WOW - This is AWSOME

After talking to Intellitec and Fleetwood, I called Waiter21 about what it would take to get one of his systems. (his real name is John) He said he doesn't offer these for sale because he's still tweaking on it, and the market is so small its probably not a viable commercial product. He said he'd let me have one at cost, but I needed to review all the installation, operation, and technical stuff on the web site, install and operate it, then report back any problems or suggestions for improvement. He called it BETA testing.

He sent me a system, circuit board, operator panel, temperature sensor, and some custom wire bundles. It took about 2 hours to install everything. When I turned it on, IT WORKED.. I followed his recommendation to do a calibration of the original temperature sensors, they were within 1 degree.

As I operated the system over the next few days, I had two questions for him. The AUTO COOL seemed to operate a little differently than the original Intellitec. (I like the new way). He said several others had suggested changeing how the blower operates in AUTO. Everyone likes the new process, when A/C reches the set point, blower turns off about 30 seconds after the compressor turns off.

The other big one for me was the temperature display. I live in Canada and we do things the correct way, in Celsius. When I called him, he said “DARN, I never even thought of that”. That afternoon, he calls me back and says to check my email. He had made a change to the software so you can configure it to either display in F or C. He then walked me through how to upload this change to my system.

This whole experience has been absolute awesome, If it hadn't been for irv2 and Waiter21, I probably would have spent a thousand dollars to fix the old system. Instead, I now have a modern system that has all kinds of neat features, at a small fraction of the cost. Again, Thank you Waiter21, you have some really neat hobbies.

If you're having problems with your Intellitec system, and it looks like its not repairable, take a look at what Waiter21 has put together. Visit his web site and check out his system. Contact him and see what it would take to get one of these for you motor-home. www.waiterecc.com

[Concord]

34 degrees in Minnesota yesterday. Sat in the warm sunlight and replenished the water in the coach batteries.. Took about a third of a gallon.

[tonto1]

on my 21 Cornerstone, my awning led's quit working on the DS. After about 3 hours on the phone with techs, it was determined my G6 board needed to be replaced. Dealer appointments were booked out 3 months, factory booked out 5 months, so I called them and said I would do the replacement. So they sent me a new board, and my wife rested the old G6 board on her head, while I unplugged everything one at a time and put onto the new G6 panel. Man I have a great wife!